When very public acts by notable public figures occur, we sometimes feel a sense of pride or embarrassment because of their actions. Some people expressed both regarding the public confrontation between Actor Will Smith and Comedian Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. But it is vital to note that neither Smith nor Rock is "representative" of Black men or Black folk. The case of SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas is another matter. He holds power that represents and can greatly affect the lives of citizens, and should be expected to vote on important Constitutional cases while mindful of the history and perspectives, as well as the implications, related to people of color under the US "rule of law."
Some people take umbrage at the characterization of SCOTUS Justice Thomas as "Uncle Thomas.” Yet sometimes a sobriquet is quite fitting and earned. The archetype character of "Uncle Tom" was a slave sitting at the foot of his "massa," making clownlike apologies while doing the oppressive bidding of white slaveholders. Clarence Thomas sits on the SCOTUS as the only current Black citizen. [Thankfully, the SCOTUS will soon seat a highly intelligent, experienced, and culturally aware Black female jurist.]
Like Uncle Tom, Clarence Thomas has disavowed or completely forgotten his heritage and history. His lead opinion in the recent ruling in the Arizona Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Case shows not only a disregard for the Sixth Amendment guarantee to criminal defendants the right to effective assistance of counsel, but also the history of abundant criminal justice system abuse, particularly against Black citizens, that makes that Constitutional guarantee so fundamental.
For decades, state level courts have imposed convictions on criminal defendants of color, while ignoring due process, abuse of procedure and misconduct by prosecutors, reliance on circumstantial evidence [if that], while so-called “defense counsel” sat by and did nothing to protect the rights of those defendants. Federal court intervention has often been the only effective means of redress for the wrongly convicted. But “Uncle Thomas” opines that the same state level abuse and bigotry that has produced such practices must be deemed paramount and prevent correction or relief by federal courts. Moreover, federal courts cannot even conduct hearings to consider whether ineffective assistance of counsel was evident, even in cases where the consequence may well be execution of the criminal defendant. Justice Sotomayor, in dissent, properly described Uncle Thomas’ opinion as “perverse” and “illogical.” And that harsh assessment was tempered by a level of customary civility among justices.
Neither the rest of us nor history will be so kind in assessing Uncle Thomas’ ruling. It is likely to be considered as infamous and as inhumane as prior SCOTUS opinions of Taney in the Dred Scott Case [that African Americans “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”] or the Holmes opinion in Buck v Bell approving involuntary sterilization of the disabled [“Three generations of imbeciles in enough.”] Such perfidy might be expected from Justices Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Alito, who deftly positioned Thomas into the leading role of authoring the majority opinion. Thomas ought to be embarrassed by his actions, but all of us should be embarrassed to have a Supreme Court of such character as to issue such a ruling.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/23/supreme-court-decision-makes-it-tougher-for-inmates-to-win-release-from-prison.html
No comments:
Post a Comment